[Frameworks] Patricia R. Zimmermann

[Dave Tetzlaff]

Patty had the desk next to mine in the TA bullpen on the 6th floor of Vilas
Hall at UW-Madison ComArts 1978-1981. She recruited me into the TA union
(TAA), and she, I, and Richard Herskowitz were all comrades during the 1980
TAA strike. She approached the strike with typical energy and creativity.
She got T-shirts printed up with a detourned version of a common UW design
featuring Bucky Badger – but holding a TAA picket sign. Then she created
these alternative lyrics to the college fight song "On Wisconsin" (etched
forever in my memory):
Off Wisconsin, Off Wisconsin
Shut this factory down
Tell old Irving Shain that he
Can't push TA's around
What the U calls education
Really is a crime
Strike now and
Fight Fight Fight
We'll win this time.

>From the get go, I considered her one of those rare individuals who are
like an elemental force of nature. I shall share just one paradigmatic
anecdote:

There were 7 or 8 of us in that office, and there was one phone for the
whole room near the door. Patty didn't spend much time at her desk, but the
majority of the times that phone rang, it was someone trying to contact
her. I began to feel a little bit like her secretary. One day as I was
alone in the room, I answered the phone, and an accented voice said,
"Isz Pat-ti there?"
I replied, as I had so often before. "No, sorry.".
"Oh, shhiit" said the voice.
"Can I take a message?" I asked.
"Yes, Tell her Werner Herzog called."
"Uh... [beat] *The* Werner Herzog??"
"Yes."
"Uh [beat] I like your films." (Yeah, that was the best I could come up
with in the moment.)
"Thank You, Good bye."
Later that day, I came back to the office after holding class, and Patty
was there at her desk. in my most faux casual 'no big deal' tone, I said,
"Oh, Patty, Werner Herzog called for you." And she replied just as casually
without even looking up from what she was doing, "Oh yeah? What did he
want?"
At which point I think I uttered something like a scream...

She was, in every way, irreplaceable. But her work, and her personal
example to everyone who knew her, will not soon be forgotten. RIP, indeed,
dear Patricia.
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